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MEMORIAL 



JAMES S. WADSWORTH 



MEMORIAL 



OP THE LATE 



GEN. JAMES S. WADSWORTE 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



|lm gorli §hie Jigrirultural ^ocietg, 



AT THE CLOSE OF ITS 



ANNUAL EXHIBITION AT ROCHESTER, 



SEPTEMBER 23d, 1864, 



HON. LEWIS F. ALLEN, 



!• BUFFALO, (EX-PRKBIDKNT OF THE SOCIETY.) 



BUFFALO : 
FRANKLIN" STEAM PRINTING HOUSE, 

THOMAS, TYPOGRAPHER. 

1864. 



• / 

J/l//5/^4 



61505 
'05 



4 



MEMORIAL 



Mr. President, Officers and Gentlemen of the New York 
Slate Agricultural Society: 

When good and great men die, it is the im- 
pulse of generous hearts, in unavaihng regrets for 
their loss, to pay a fitting tribute to their private 
worth and public services. From time immemo- 
rial. States, communities and societies Avith which 
they have been connected, or to which they had 
rendered eminent benefits, have borne prompt and 
honorable testimony to their virtues and actions, 
not only as the expression of gratitude and respect 
to their memories, but to inspire posterity as well 
as their co temporaries with an admiration of good 
deeds and beneficent labors. All worthy societies 
and associations have had inscribed on their mem- 



ber rolls names of distinguislied men and benefac- 
tors — and this Society, although humble in its 
pretensions, unambitious of worldly renown, and 
cultivating only the arts of peaceful life, may 
claim, not boastfully, but with heartfelt satisfaction, 
names most honorable in their efforts for human 
welfare, and deeply lamented in their too early 
departure from the field of their labors. 

At a meeting of the Executive Committee' of 
your Society in May last it was '' Resolved, That 
a memorial of the late James S. Wadsworth, of his 
connections with this Society, with the agriculture 
of his county, and of the State, and his devotion 
to his country, be prepared and read before the 
Society at its annual exhibition in September next 
at Rochester." 

In obedience to that resolution I appear before 
you to speak of that lamented man, late a Presi- 
dent of this Society. This rich and populous 
Valley of the Genesee was his home, and in and 
around it was the principal theatre of his action. 
His name was almost a household word throughout 
Western New York, and he was loved and hon- 
ored by all who knew him. This is the place to 
speak of him, and of his connection with the agri- 



cultural interests of Ins county, of his vicinity, 
and of the State, — of his labors in their behalf, and 
his influence on their welfare. Most gladly, yet 
respectfully, would I have preferred that this task 
should be discharged by one who more intimately 
knew, and better appreciated the life of this 
excellent man, than myself; but the duty placed 
upon me by the Committee seemed imperative, - 
and I respond to their command with great diffi- 
dence in my ability to do justice to the occasion. 
You will pardon what may, perhaps, seem a digres- 
sion from the immediate subject of this memorial, 
but the scope of the "resolution" demands a more 
discursive notice of the agricultural events and 
progress of this vicinity than what have passed 
under our own immediate observation. 

Seventy-four years ago, the spot on which we 
stand — this opulent and thriving city, ringing with 
the sounds of human industry — this broad and 
magnificent valley, reaching from the lake almost 
within our sight to the distant hills on the southern 
border of our State, was a wild, unbroken wilder- 
ness. The victorious army of General SuUivan, 
under the direction of our recently formed na- 
tional government, had just driven the predatory 



Indian bands from their forays on the border 
settlements of the Chemung, and Tioga, to their 
distant forest homes, and they gladly consented 
to bury their enmities, and live in peaceful inter- 
course with our people. The broad and fertile 
lands of Western New York had been purchased 
by various individuals and companies, both in 
the Eastern States and Europe, and were about 
to be laid open for settlement. In the year 1790 
two young men, entrusted with agencies for 
the disposition of large tracts of these lands, left 
their homes in Connecticut, and after a journey 
of several weeks through formidable difficulties, 
a portion of the way clearing their forest road 
with axes, they gained the banks of the Genesee 
at Big Tree, thirty miles south of what is now 
Rochester. The name of these two young men 
was Wadsworth. William, six years the elder, 
was a man of bold, determined temperament, vig- 
orous, indomitable will, skilled in the stern and 
rugged arts of life, possessing the power to reduce 
the forest to culture, and imbued withal, with a 
military spirit, eminently fitting him as a pioneer in 
the great work which invited him to its achieve- 
ment. James, the younger, was of a milder 



quality. He had been liberally educated. His 
mind, penetrating and expansive, had been highly 
cultivated, and his habits trained to business. 
System, order, and perseverance, were the rules 
of his action. Thus, with the extraordinary op- 
portunities laid out before the brothers, success 
was sure to follow their undertakings. 

In the discharge of their agencies they di- 
vided and sold extensive tracts of land, and 
invited a multitude of settlers into the Genesee 
Valley, and throughout its immediate borders. 
Industrious and thriving communities grew up, 
and teeming fields with bounteous harvests opened 
and ripened all round them. Possessing the love 
of domain, inherent in their English ancestry, the 
Wadsworths, as they progressed, invested their 
earnings in choice tracts of the rich valley, until 
their acres were counted by thousands, and in 
process of years " the Wads worth farms " became 
famous, not only in the country round about, but 
in the old settlements of Eastern New York and 
New Ensfland. William was the out-door man 
and farmer; the forests fell, and the fields were 
cleared under his sturdy perseverance : while 
James was the office-man and financier; and it 



8 

was mainly his fine rural taste and wise fore- 
cast, aided by tlie vigorous thought and industry 
of his brother, which gave outline to their estates 
and system to their agriculture. Great herds 
of cattle fattened in their meadows; numerous 
flocks of sheep ranged their pastures ; and over 
their wide uplands, the richest wheat ripened 
for the sickle, and the reaper. Even in those 
early years they sought improved varieties of 
horses, cattle, sheep and swine, and introduced 
them to their farms, and by their example gave 
tone and impulse to a style of husbandry among 
the farmers around them which has been con- 
tinued to the present day. 

Time wore on. The pioneers of the Genesee 
country, one after another were gathered to their 
fathers, and William Wadsworth, a bachelor, in the 
year 1833, at the age of seventy-one years, bearing 
an honorable record as a general officer in the 
militia of his county, at the memorable battle 
of Queenstou, on the Niagara frontier, in the war 
of 1812, and of a life marked by useful labors 
at home, went down to his grave, bequeathing 
his share of the Wadsworth estates to his brother 
and his children. 



James Wadsworth had married at middle age, 
and established his family home on the spot of 
his first settlement, then become a neat and thriv- 
ing village, called Geneseo. Here were born and 
reared his children, two sons and three daughters 
— not one of whom is now livino^. Thrivino; in 
his fortunes, cultivated in his tastes, an,d accom- 
plished with the advantages of foreign travel 
during some years' residence in Europe, where the 
business of his agencies had early called him, he 
became widely known for his genial hospitality, 
his dignified manners, and his elevated intercourse 
with society. Few country gentlemen in the Uni- 
ted States — none, certainly, in the State of New 
York — through their wide business correspond- 
ence abroad, and at home, Avere better or more 
favorably known. His plans of improvement were 
broad, comprehensive and thoroughly practical. 
Much of the grand beauty and park-like scenery of 
the Genesee Valley owe their effect to his refined 
taste and testhetic judgment. He patronized edu- 
cation by donations for the improvement of our 
Common School system, and gave liberally for 
school and town libraries in his county. He main- 
tained the systematic plans of agricultural routine 



10 

adopted by liis brother and himself at an early 
day, and as circumstances required, improved them. 
After a life of temperance, frugality and useful- 
ness, in the year 1844, at the age of seventy-six 
years, he died, leaving his family, probably the 
finest agricultural estate in the country. 

James Samuel Wads worth, whose recent sudden 
and melancholy death we now mourn, was the 
eldest son of James Wadsworth, and born in the 
town of Geneseo, in the county of Livingston, in 
the year 1807. Endowed with a robust physical 
constitution, coupled with a bright and vigorous 
intellect, he was educated, not in the pent up 

schools of a crowded city, but as all country boys 
should be, in the best schools of a country village. 
His collegiate course was completed at Harvard 
University. He afterwards acquired the profes- 
sion of the law, partially in the office of Daniel 
Webster, in Boston, and finished his course of 
law reading in Albany. Born to the inheritance 
of great wealth, accomplished in education, pro- 
fessional knowledge, and the advantages of eleva- 
ted society, on arriving at his majority the most 
flattering allurements to personal ambition, to 
luxury, and worldly enjoyment so dazzling to the 



11 

imagination of a spirited young man, were spread 
before him. But young Wadswortli was both 
thoughtful, and considerate. Though loving, and 
reasonably indulging in the pleasures of society, 
he calmly surveyed his position at the outset of 
what might become an important life. His uncle 
William, the out- door manager of the landed 
property of the family, was in the sere and yellow 
leaf of declining age. His father, bowed with 
forty years of toil and responsibility, had looked 
hopefully to a time of repose, and James, with a 
manly resolution, and thorough appreciation of 
his duty, threw aside the blandishments of fortune, 
turned his attention to business, and gradually 
assumed the chief supervision of the family 
estates. 

Probably no agricultural property in the coun- 
try, so extensive in domain, had been arranged 
into a better division of individual farms, and their 
husbandry directed with more systematic econ- 
omy on the part of the landlords, than those of 
the Wadsworths. The soils were applied to those 
crops most congenial to their natures, and which 
yielded the most profit on their outlay ; and as 
a proof that the mutual interests of landlord and 



12 

tenant were thoroughly studied, I understand 
that quite three-fourths in number of the tenants 
now on the farms are those, and the descendants 
of those who occupied them in the hfetime of 
the elder Wadsworths. 

In noticing the management of an overshad- 
owing agricultural estate like this, a remark 
might be expected upon the tendency of such 
extraordinary holdings, and their influence upon 
the welfare of those who rely on them for sup- 
port. Such discussion is hardly germain to this 
occasion ; yet I frankly admit, that the system 
of aggregating land in large bodies by individual 
proprietors, and holding it under a tenant culti- 
vation, has not generally proved favorable to the 
highest prosperity of the communities connected 
with them. The system is scarcely in accord- 
ance with the spirit of our Republican institutions. 
In this instance, however, it is a gratifying fact 
that the moral and pecuniary condition of the 
inhabitants dwelling on the Wadsworth farms is 
as high, and the line of husbandry has been as* 
good, in the average, as among the smaller farm- 
ers who hold their lands in fee — and the i^eneral 
agriculture of Livingston county is of no mean 



13 

order. Nor can any sensible man throw merited 
censure upon the conduct of the elder Wads- 
worths in thus amassing, and holding with tena- 
cious grip, such a noble domain. In the vigor 
of their young manhood they went into a Avild 
country, and grappled with all the hardships and 
diseases incident to a reduction of the broad 
wilderness to life and civilization. Improving 
their fortunate advantage, they won their posses- 
sions fairly. God had made the land beautiful 
in its undulating surface, and blessed it with 
surpassing fertility. Magnificent landscapes of 
wood, and meadow, and swelling upland ; of 
crystal lakes, and leaping streams, and flowing 
river stretched far and wide around them — a 
land most goodly to behold — and with ready 
eye and sagacious plan they saw, possessed, and 
enjoyed it. And they used it well. 

In the year 1841, by an act of our Legislature, 
the State Agricultural Society was re-organized. 
Through an appropriation from the State Treasury 
its funds were augmented, and an exhibition of 
farm products, and mechanical implements was 
ventured. Under the new administration of its 
affairs, the first exhibition was held at Syracuse 



14 

in September of that year, and with such degree 
of success, that its annual repetition was demand- 
ed. In January, 1842, James S. Wadsworth, of 
Geneseo, was unanimously elected President of 
the Society. For several years he had pursued 
the business of a farmer on his own account, as 
well as supervised the chief agricultural affairs of 
his father's estate, and in his own vicinity was 
known and esteemed as a thrifty, intelligent hus- 
bandman. It was fit and proper that such an 
one as he should receive the honor, and take the 
responsibility of the office. The Society, although 
successful, so far as its imperfect organization in 
a new field of exertion had proved, was yet to 
be further systematized, and put in working 
order. With characteristic energy, Mr. Wads- 
worth entered upon the discharge of his duties, 
and the good conduct and well-doing of the Soci- 
ety enlisted his heartiest attention. He became, 
at the same time, with his father, and' brother, a 
life member, and with the aid of his spirited asso- 
ciates in office, placed it on a sure basis of success. 
The next exhibition was at Albany, and a most 
gratifying display of improved husbandry, house- 
hold art, and mechanical skill was offered to the 



15 

congregated and expectant friends of our agri- 
cultural advancement. The degree of tact, apti- 
tude, and readiness in the discharge of his duties 
evinced by the young President, determined the 
Society to re-elect him, and appoint the exhibition 
for the year 1843 in the City of Rochester, the 
vicinity of his home, where his attention could be 
readily given to its preparation. And most amply 
was that preparation made. His personal services 
and ready purse were both yielded for the occa- 
sion. The Genesee Valley poured forth the 
choicest of its agricultural abundance, and the 
skill and handicraft of the young and active city 
joined in their rival display, while the more 
distant country, East and West, met each other 
with their mutual oiferings. This, the third exhi- 
bition of the Society, larger in material, and 
more numerous in attendance than either of the 
two which preceded it, was but the growth of 
well directed effort on the part of its managers, 
and the increasing spirit of the people. The 
career of the Society was no longer a probation ; 
and assured of its success, Mr. Wadsworth, at the 
close of his official term, with well won honors, 
gracefully retired to give room to his successor. 



16 

The death of his father during the succeeding 
year threw the management of three-fourths of 
the Wadsworth estates — that portion belonging 
to himself and sisters — upon James, the other 
fourth being owned and managed by his younger 
brother, William. Not only the lands in the 
Genesee Valley, but other extensive real and per- 
sonal properties had come to his charge, and he 
addressed himself to their care with an industry, 
an ability, and a knowledge of their multifarious 
interests, quite equal to the necessity. He main- 
tained the system of management which had been 
long adopted, and had only to extend it over 
such routine and details as became necessary by 
changes or aggregations incident to such extended 
affairs. He continued his labors, both in the 
councils, and at the annual exhibitions of the 
Society, and for many years his farm stock formed 
a prominent feature in the prize lists. On all occa- 
sions he evinced the liveliest interest in its welfare, 
and as soon as he had a son old enough — and 
his second one he trained to be a farmer — the strip- 
ling appeared among us with his fatted bullocks, 
and blooded horses, in honest competition with 
the hardest-handed farmer in the show grounds. 



17 

Nor were the agricultural efforts of Mr. Wads- 
worth coufined to the State Society. He took an 
active interest in his own County Association, and 
vigorously assisted its efforts in improving the 
husbandry of his vicinity. He imported from 
abroad choice breeds of farm stock, and in vari- 
ous manner promoted the welfare of the farmers 
of Livingston by his own example, as well as 
by his aid in the encouragement of new and 
economical inventions in labor-saving implements. 
His influence, always active, was persistent and 
beneficial throughout. 

More intimate with the varied interests which 
build up the prosperity of the community outside 
of agriculture than the elder Wadsworths had 
been, James became engaged in several of the 
active enterprises with which the business men of 
Western New York were identified. He embarked 
a share of his capital in them, and gave to these 
different investments a portion of his attention. 
He was emphatically, a man of the times — a 
part and parcel of the entire community in what 
concerned their material welfare, and no man 
among them all was more alive to the prosperity 
of the people, aside from purely selfish motives, 



18 

than himself. Enjoying the well earned returns 
of intelligent enterprise, and improving by a 
liberal participation with others the fortunes of 
himself, and his family, his action redounded 
largely to the public good. 

An incident may here be recited testifying to 
the esteem and affection in which Mr. Wadsworth 
was held in the community where he lived, and 
was best known. In December, 1851, business 
having called him to Europe, he took passage 
in the steamship Atlantic on his homeward voy- 
age. The vessel did not arrive in New York 
at the expected time. Some days afterward a 
report came that she had met with an accident 
at sea which might prove fiital to her safety, and 
so long was further intelligence delayed, that by 
many the ship was given up for lost. It was 
known that he was on board, and during twenty- 
eight days of weary suspense, thousands of sub- 
dued voices and anxious hearts outside the agon- 
ized circle of his own fireside, testified their 
sorrow at his probable fate. His loss would have 
been felt as a public calamity. But a joyous 
day ere long shone out on both kindred and 
friends. Intelligence of his arrival in New York 



19 

was speeded over the wires, and a day or two 
later he was welcomed to his home in Geneseo 
by the sound of bells and the congratulations of 
his assembled friends and neighbors. 

In public affairs the opinions and action of Mr. 
Wadsworth were decided. He took a lively 
interest in the leading questions of the day — 
not the lower issues affecting mere party politics 
— but questions involving grave principles, and 
policies worthy the attention of statesmen, and 
philanthropists, in which his views were thor- 
oughly defined, and inflexibly determined. Had 
he sought civil promotion, it was always open to 
his acceptance ; but the tranquil paths of private 
life were more congenial to his tastes and feelings. 

But a new and untried field of action was 
suddenly destined to open before him. Early in 
the year 1861 the atrocious rebellion in the slave 
States of the Union against the general govern- 
ment, found him at his temporary residence in 
the city of New York. The President of the 
United States had called for troops to defend the 
seat of government from spoliation, and possible 
capture at the hands of the rebels. The national 
treasury robbed ; the navy sent abroad, and scat- 



20 

tered in distant seas; the army — what there was 
of it — dispersed along our wide-spread frontier, 
and the ma.teriel of defence squandered or carried 
away by the parricidal hands of an administra- 
tion who had sworn in all solemnity to support 
the Constitution of their country ; in this hour of 
its extremity, Mr. Wadsworth, in the impulsive 
patriotism of his nature, rushed to that country's 
rescue. With his own purse and credit he fur- 
nished a vessel with a cargo of army supplies, 
went with it to Annapolis, and gave his personal 
attention to its distribution among the troops 
which had been hastily called to protect the city 
of Washington. This assistance on the part of 
Mr, Wadsworth, so timely rendered in the impov- 
erished condition of the public treasury, although 
afterwards repaid to him, was none the less cred- 
itable to both his patriotism and liberality. He 
then offered his services to the Government in 
any capacity where they could become useful, or 
important, and from that time forward abandoned 
his private affairs to the care of his agents, and 
devoted his entire energies to his country. As a 
volunteer Aid to General McDowell, he engaged 
in the first battle of Bull Run, and by his courage 



21 

and energy, retrieved much of the disaster of 
that ill-fated engagement. In July, 1861, appoint- 
ed a Brigadier General, he was assigned to a 
command in the Army of the Potomac. In the 
succeeding month of March, he was ordered to 
Washington, as Military Governor of the city, 
and for nine months discharged with distinguished 
ability the duties of that difficult and important 
post. In December, 1862, at his own request, he 
was ordered to the field. He reported to Major 
General Reynolds, commanding the First Corps, 
and was assigned by that distinguished officer to 
the command of his First Division, and afterwards 
led that division in the battles of Fredericksburg, 
and Chancellorsville. At the battle of Gettys- 
burg his was the first division engaged, going 
into action at nine o'clock in the morning, and 
fighting until four in the afternoon, encountering 
the severest part of the action, and suffering the 
heaviest loss of any portion of the army. Our 
troops winning the battle, and routing the enemy 
from the field, General Wadsworth, comprehend- 
ing the vast consequences depending on the 
immediate subjugation, or capture of the rebel 
forces, urged the commanding General, Meade, 



22 

to their pursuit. But in vain. Other and more 
timid counsels prevailed, and that invading host 
of rebels was suffered to escape with the mild 
punishment of a simple defeat. The daring cour- 
age and stern energy of General Wadsworth, on 
this decisive field, placed him, in all the high 
qualities of a soldier, second to no other General 
officer of the army. 

Nor was he, of his family, alone in his devo- 
tion to the public service. Two sons followed 
him into the army. The elder one, Charles, was 
attached to the Department of the Gulf — served 
as Captain under General Banks, and participated 
in the attack on Port Hudson. With a year of 
active service, at the call of imperative duties at 
home, he resigned his command. The younger 
son, Craig, was attached to General Wadsworth's 
staff for a time, and afterwards held responsible 
and hazardous positions with other General officers 
in various departments, until May last, when 
important domestic duties called him home. The 
son-in-law of General Wadsworth, Captain Ritchie, 
also joined the army early in the war. He was 
engaged in General Burnside's first expedition, 
afterwards served in the several battles at Port 



23 

Hudson, and continued in active service until the 
melancholy event of the Wilderness compelled his 
resignation. If, in the annals all time, an instance 
of higher patriotism, and intenser devotion to the 
honor of their country has been shown by a father 
and three sons, possessing millions of wealth, and 
beckoned by all the allurements of ease and lux- 
ury from personal danger, that instance has yet to 
be written ; and would that the narrative of hard 
fought battles, and bloody sacrifice could stop 
here. 

General Wadsworth took an active part in the 
arrangements and preparations of the campaign 
of General Grant in the spring of 1864 against 
the rebel army in Virginia. His judgment in 
council, and energy in action had placed him in 
such estimation with the military authorities, that, 
at the outset of the campaign he was charged 
with a leading command. A decisive work was 
before the Army of the Potomac. The country 
had become impatient of delay in its long antici- 
pated advance, and anxiously expectant of better 
results than had, in the past, marked its checkered 
fortunes. This feeling was known to no one 
better than to Wadsworth. He responded to 



24 

it with all the fervor of his unfaltering nature, 
and with a determination, on his own part, that it 
should not be disappointed. The incidents attend- 
ing the opening of the campaign, and its first 
battle of the Wilderness, so melancholy in its 
results, are of such interest that I shall be excused 
for laying some of them before you, which I 
obtained from Captain Craig W. Wadsworth, a son 
of the General, who was in a part of the battle : 

"When the Army of the Potomac was re-organ- 
ized last spring, my father was placed in command 
of the Fourth Division, Fifth Corps. This division 
was made up of his old division of the First Corps, 
with the addition of another, the Third Brigade. 
He crossed the Rapidan on the 4th of May. On 
the evening of the 5th, his command was engaged 
for several hours, and lost heavily. On the morn- 
ing of the 6th he was ordered to report to General 
Hancock, commanding the Second Corps, and by 
him was ordered into action on the right of that 
corps. My father made several charges with his 
division, and finally carried quite an important 
position, but was unable to hold it, the enemy 
coming down in superior numbers. This was 
about eight o'clock A. M., the fighting having 



25 

comniericed at daylight. About this time, Gen- 
eral Hancock sent lor my father, and told him he 
had ordered three brigades, Generals Ward's, 
Webb's, and one from General Burnside's Corps, 
to report to him, and he wished him, if possible, 
with the six brigades under his command, to carry 
a certain position. Three or four assaults were 
made without success, the fighting being terrific. 
My father had two horses killed under him. Gen- 
eral Hancock then sent word to my father not to 
make any further attempts to dislodge the enemy 
at present. This was about eleven o'clock A, M. 
The enemy did not show any further disposition 
to attack. It was Hill's Corps which my father 
had been fighting. Everything rernained quiet 
until about twelve o'clock, when Longstreet pre- 
cipitated his corps on my father's left, and hurled 
back Ward's Brigade at that point, in some confu- 
sion. My father, seeing this, immediately threw 
his second line, composed of his own division, 
forward, and formed it on the plank road, at right 
angles to his original line, the ditch at the side of 
the road affording his men some protection. It 
was in trying to hold this line, with his own gal- 
lant division, then reduced to about sixteen hun- 



26 

dred men, that he fell. His tMrd horse was killed 
that morning, about the time he was wounded. 
The enemy was charging at the time, and got 
possession of the ground before my father could 
be removed. He was carried back to one of the 
rebel hospitals that Friday afternoon, and lived 
until Sunday morning." 

To illustrate somewhat the carnage of war, and 
its uncertainties, I may relate the whereabouts of 
the son. Captain Craig Wadsworth, at " The Wil- 
derness" battle: "During the 5th and 6th of May, 
the division of cavalry to which I was attached, 
was guarding the wagon train. On the morning 
of the 6th, I obtained permission from my Gen- 
eral, Torbert, to go up to the front, and remain 
two or three hours with my father. I reached 
him between eight and nine o'clock, and remained 
with him until he received the order from General 
Hancock not to make any further attempt to dis- 
lodge the enemy. I got word about this time 
that General Torbert was moving, so I rejoined 
my command. We started out with General Sher- 
idan on his raid, the next morning, and I never 
knew positively of my father's death, until we 
reached the White House." 



27 

This narrative will scarcely be complete with- 
out the letter of Patrick McCracken, to the widow 
of General Waclsworth, a copy of which has been 
kindly furnished me. It reads as follows: 

Spotsylvania Court House, Va., 
May 9th, 1864. 

Mrs. General Wadsworth, New York : 

Dear Afadam, — You have heard, before this reaches 
you, of the death of your brave husband, General Wads- 
worth, I saw him in the hospital, near the battle-field, on 
Saturday last, about ten o'clock ; he could not speak or 
take any notice to anything ; he held a paper in his hand 
with his name and address written on it ; he was surround- 
ed with the most eminent surgeons in the Confederacy, 
who done everything for him that could be done ; one of 
them took the paper out of his hand, and when he laid 
the paper back against his hand, he opened his hand and 
took it back again ; he did not seem to suffer much, the 
ball had entered the top, or rather the back of his head. 
I saw him again on Sunday, about nine o'clock. I had 
carried some sweet milk to the hospital, and wet his lips 
several times, and let a little go down his mouth. But 
when the surgeon raised him up, he could not get him to 
let any go down. When I returned to the hospital, about 
three o'clock, he was dead and in a box, ready for inter- 
ment. I told the surgeon in charge that I was a prisoner 
nine weeks in the Old Capitol, while the General was 
Military Governor of Washington, and that I would have 
a coffin made for him, and bury him in a family burying 
ground ; he cheerfully consented. After much trouble, I 
had a coffin made for him, as good as any could be made 



28 



in the country. When I went for his remains with tlie 
coffin, General Lee had given special orders, (not knowing 
I was going to take charge of his remains.) that he should 
be buried by a large tree, the tree to be cut low, and his 
name marked on it. I had given the surgeon satisfactory 
evidence that I would take care of the body, and with the 
advice of Captain Z. B. Adams, Co. F., 66th Mass. Eegt., 
they gave me the body. I removed it from the box to the 
coffin, and brought it home last night, and buried it this 
morning in the family burying ground at my house ; he is 
buried with all his clothing, as he fell on the battle-field. 
The grave is dug with a vault or chamber, the coffin cov- 
ered with jDlunk, and then dirt. When arrangements are 
made by our government for his removal I will take 
pleasure in having him moved through our lines to his 
friends. I live about a mile to the left of the plank road, 
as you go from Fredericksburg to Orange Court House, 
near New Hope Meeting House, on the plank road, twenty 
miles from Fredericksburg and eigliteen from Orange 
Court House. 

I had a large plank planed and marked for a headstone, 
and placed it at the head of the grave. He received all the 
attention and kindness at the hands of the Confederate 
authorities that could be bestowed upon him, as will be 
attested by Captain Z. B. Adams, Co. R, 56 th Mass. 
Regiment. 

With great respect, I remain yours, 

PATRICK Mccracken. 

Thus, on the soil of his country's foe, far from 
the soothing hand of sympathy, or the loved em- 
braces of those lie held most dear — his brain 



29 

shattered — his mind unconscious — but a glorious 
memory awaiting him — died, and was temporarily 
buried, this noble, generous soldier. Though 
slaughtered on a distant battle-field, his remains 
now rest in the burial ground of his native village. 
The hand of filial affection rescued them from a 
profaned grave. They were tenderly removed, 
and, under the escort of a detachment of Invalid 
Corps, from Washington, arrived at Geneseo on 
the morning of the 21st of May, after a lapse of 
fifteen days from the time he fell, and were depos- 
ited within the walls, and amid the heart-stricken 
circle of his now desolated home. A multitude 
from the surrounding, and even distant country, 
had come to meet the arrival of the Dead Soldier, 
and pay their last tribute of respect at his grave. 
His burial was simple, as was fitting to his 
grand and simple life. In the afternoon of the 
day, the remains were removed to the Episcopal 
church of the village. The solemn ritual of his 
own Christian faith was said, and then, preceded 
by a veteran corps of the 21st Volunteer Regi- 
ment, from Buffalo — one of the earliest which 
entered the war, and himself had led to battle — 
and followed by a great concourse of those who had 



30 

long loved, and now mourned him, his body was 
borne to its final rest. 

And there he sleeps till at the Trump divine, 
The Earth and Ocean render up their dead. 

It may appear superfluous to speak further of 
General Wadsworth, or to delineate his character 
to those who knew him so well as you ; but to 
those who did not know him — and his fame is 
the property of his country — it is but just to 
speak of him as he deserved. An allusion might 
be made to the more matured policy, and opin- 
ions which influenced him, beyond mere impulse, 
to enter into the military service of his country ; 
but this is not the time, nor is it the place, for such 
allusion. The graver, and more leisurely pen of 
History will do justice to both, when it shall write 
the full measure of his intentions, and contemplated 
action, had his life been spared to disclose them. 
That they were wise, and beneficent, as they were 
entirely unselfish — reaching far beyond any aspi- 
ration to mere military fame, or the applause 
accorded to temporary success — is known to those 
who were intimate with his thoughts. That he 
was not ambitious of political distinction is proved 
by his declining the oflice of Governor of the 



31 

State, some years ago, when his simple assent to 
the wishes of his party friends, then in a powerful 
majority, would have elected him. At the break- 
ing out of the rebellion, he magnanimously urged 
upon the President of the United States, the 
appointment of General Dix, to the office of Major 
General, on account of his greater military expe- 
rience, and fitness, although a political opponent, 
when they had both been named by the Executive 
of New York for that position, and under the rule 
of the War Department, at Washington, but one 
of them could be accepted. 

To an intimate friend of General Wadsworth, 
(the Hon. Daniel H. Fitzhugh, of Geneseo,) I am 
indebted for some relations of his private life 
which I have given you, and, in addition, I repeat 
some of his words: 

" I have known General Wadsworth since he 
was a boy of ten years old, and his early years 
gave promise of what his manhood would be. 
Although never quarrelsome, he was always ready 
to resent insult, or resist oppression. His friend- 
ships were fixed and unwavering, and to serve a 
friend, he would risk to any extent, either person 
or proj)erty. His domestic relations were most 



32 

happy. A more kind, indulgent, or affectionate 
husband, and father, I have never known. His 
hospitality was unbounded, and, as a host, I have 
met with few who possessed so happy a faculty 
of entertaining their guests ; his conversation 
always animated, amusing, and instructive. He 
lived a truly Christian life, although not a professor 
of religion. He loved his fellow men, and was 
always foremost when any charity was to be dis- 
pensed, or any project was on foot for enlightening, 
elevating, or benefiting, in any way, the human 
family. He was liberal to his tenants, in the abate- 
ment of rents, when their crops had been destroyed, 
or injured by insects, floods, or droughts. Brave 
to rashness, he was generous, liberal, humane. 
Highly intelligent and well educated, he possessed 
all the qualities which make men good and great. 
In short, I have seldom known an instance where 
so many high qualities have been combined in 
one individual, and would to God we had more 
like him in this trying crisis of our country !" 

Such is the testimony of one who knew him for 
nearly fifty years. In a personal acquaintance 
with General Wadsworth for more than thirty 
years, I have, seldom or never, known one for 



33 

whom I had a greater respect. His bearing was 
manly, his words sincere, his sentiments outspoken. 
He was direct and cordial in manner, genial in his 
associations, affable to all with whom he had inter- 
course, irrespective of rank, or condition in life, 
yet decided in opinion, and frank in its expression. 
If any quality of his mind stood out conspicuously 
beyond another, it was that of a vigorous common 
sense, coupled with a ready judgment, applied to 
all matters which arrested his attention. This was 
manifested in various public questions which agi- 
tated the community, as well as in the manage- 
ment of the large estates, both real and personal, 
under his control, not only to the benefit of the 
estates themselves, but to the welfare of the com- 
munities with which they were connected. In all 
his business relations, I have never heard of an act 
of injustice or oppression at his hands. 

His faithfulness to the duties of any kind which 
he had undertaken, was a striking feature of his 
character. In the three years of his connection 
with the war, he did not, altogether, spend six 
weeks of time at his family home. His soul was 
in his country's service. Nor was his attention 
alone absorbed in the simple official duties of the 



34 

Commander. In camp, he was among liis soldiers, 
in tent, or in liospital, looking after their v^ants, 
ministering to their comfort, promoting their wel- 
fare, and correcting abuses where they existed — 
thus adding to the efficiency of his corps by every 
exercise of humanity, as well as by the sterner de- 
mands of the field. No General was ever more 
]:)eloved by his troops than he. 

Those who recollect the Irish dearth, of the year 
1847, when the famished cry of millions of down- 
trodden sufferers reached America, will not forget 
the merciful bounty with which he contributed to 
freight a ship with corn, and gratuitously sent it 
out for distribution to the hunger-stricken people. 
Nor was he vaunting in his charities, timely and 
liberal as they were. It was characteristic of his 
benevolence to do good by stealth, rather than to 
be seen of men. He demeaned himself as one of 
the great human brotherhood, and I might even 
speak of his expression of indignant commisera- 
tion over the victims of a boasted "domestic in- 
stitution," as in their crouching helplessness, side 
by side, he and myself, some years ago, stood over 
them at a human chattel market in one of the 
"chivalrous" Southern States. 



35 

His tastes were elevated, and liberal. He 
esteemed his wealth less for his own pleasure, than 
for the benefit and happiness of others. He indul- 
ged in no idle display of luxury, yet the elegancies 
of life, and the adornments of art found in him an 
appreciating admirer and patron. He loved lands 
in all their wealth of vegetable, or mineral pro- 
duction. He loved to talk of agriculture, and its 
advancement, of crops, and their improved modes 
of cultivation, of horses, and of cattle. He loved 
the grand old trees in his ancestral meadows, and 
every natural, and artificial thing which beautified 
the earth, and ministered to the benefit of man. 

In remarking upon the wealth of General Wads- 
worth, it may possibly be inferred that undue merit 
has been given him for the accident of its possession. 
Not so. It was not because he had wealth, but 
because he knew how to use his wealth, that I 
speak of him in terms of approbation. I strive to 
measure him the man he was. In this age of lax 
education, irregular habits, and impulsive action — 
an age in which money is the God of most men's 
adoration — he had wealth enough to spoil twenty 
common men, and it was a rare merit in him that 
with all the tempting opportunities at his hanc], 



36 

he withstood their fascinations. The wonder is 
that he was not a profligate, or — a miser. 

But the last great labor of his life — his devo- 
tion to a country which he loved beyond all else 

— proved the virtue that was in him. Surrounded 
with all that could render life enjoyable • — friends, 
fortune, domestic love, and the consciousness of 
duty well discharged — he abandoned them all at 
the coming of his country's danger, went forth to 
its rescue — and, if might be, to die for its deliv- 
erance. He could equally well, as men would say, 
have served his country in contributing of his 
treasure to its necessities, instead of leading its 
soldiers to battle, and his valuable life been spared 
to his family, to the community, and to the State. 
But such was not his own sense of duty, and his 
blood has paid the sacrifice of his devotion. In 
his death we, as a Society, mourn a friend and 
associate ; the community in which he lived, a 
useful citizen; the State an enlightened patriot; 
the army, a heroic soldier ; and the Nation, a Man 
worthy of its noblest honors. A life of active 
duty, crowned with achievements of loftiest intent, 
has written him high in the roll of illustrious men 

— the peer of any other in the annals of his time. 



37 

Sleep! hero — patriot — benefactor! Peacefully 
sleep in your honored grave! And may that 
Almighty Power who holds the destiny of nations 
in His hand, lift your beloved country from its 
present calamity, and redeemed from all servile 
oppression and bloodguiltiness, establish it a mon- 
ument of righteousness to the world ! 



On the conclusion of the memorial, the Honora- 
ble Ex-Gov. John A. King, offered the following 
resolution : 

Resolved, As the sense of the members of the 
Society, that the death of our lamented associate 
and friend, James S. Wadsworth, fills our hearts 
with unfeigned regret and sorrow — that his ab- 
sence from our deliberations and exhibitions is felt 
and acknowledged by all who knew his worth and 
intelligence. He was no common man. Liberally 
educated, with a sound, firm, and discriminating 
mind ; inheriting the broad lands of an honored 
father, the cultivation and management of which 



38 

was his delight and occupation, he stood forth a 
noble example of an American citizen in all his 
relations. Foremost in the cutivation of the arts 
of peace, he gave his life in the defense of the 
Union and the Constitution of his country, when 
rebel hands were raised against them. Honored, 
therefore, be the memory of such a man, whose 
life and death were alike distinguished and glori- 
ous, and whose name must ever be a house- 
hold word among the free homes of his native 
State. 

The resolution was unanimously adopted. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



013 700 553 # 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



013 700 553 ^ 



